[1] Until 2016, Friedmann was CEO of MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates for 20 years, during which time the company's revenue grew 19-fold and market capitalization increased 35-fold.

[3][4] He studied engineering physics at the University of British Columbia and in 1979 went to work for MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates, a company that at that time specialized in hardware and software for satellite ground stations.

[3] Over time the company started to work on satellites, designing and eventually owning Canada's RADARSAT system, and around 1990 diversified into software for the real estate industry, buying BC OnLine from provincial government of British Columbia.

[7] Friedmann is currently CEO and Chairman of Carbon Engineering,[1][8] a company dedicated to removing CO2 from the air to aid in solving climate change.

[4][9] He also published Roadmap to the End of Days in 2017, The Biblical Clock in 2019,[10] Mysteries of the First Instant in 2021, and a business book An MBA from Heaven in 2019.